1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a peripheral device control system, which is comprised of peripheral devices and an information processing apparatus connected thereto through a network.
2. Description of Related Art
Peripheral devices, such as a printer, a scanner, a facsimile, a copy machine and a multifunction printer having functions of these devices, are provided with known functions, i.e. a function of counting the total number of prints for every user or every section and charging for the counted number every month, and a function of restricting the use of a peripheral device when the number of prints of the device reaches the upper limit designated for each user.
As other known functions, a job (command) is issued to print an original in an information processing apparatus (e.g., a host computer and a workstation) from the information processing apparatus which is connected to a peripheral device through a network to the peripheral device, and a job is issued to acquire data about the number of prints produced by every user, from the peripheral device, and then the number of prints produced by every user who used the peripheral device is calculated and managed, according to an application program (control program) provided in the information processing apparatus.
It is desired, however, to not only count the number of prints, but also to count the number of prints for every operating mode including, for example, a paper size such as A4 and A3, a printing mode such as one-side printing and double-side printing, a toner color, and a paper type and then finely sum up and manage such usage conditions in order to charge users.
If, however, there are one-thousand users, there are ten paper sizes, there are two printing modes of one-side printing and double-side printing, there are three toner colors of full color, monochromatic color and black-and-white, and there are five paper types, for example, it is necessary to prepare counters in the number of combinations thereof. That is, if four bytes (B) are required for one counter, it is necessary to provide the storage capacity (memory capacity) of about 1 MB (1,000 users×10 paper sizes×2 printing modes×3 toner colors×5 paper types×4 B=1,200,000 B). Conventional peripheral devices, however, do not have enough memory capacity to store the information for every operating mode. The memory must be expanded to address this problem, which increases the cost of the peripheral devices.